While other countries were still struggling in the depths of
recession or depression, Fischer actually raised
rates in Israel in 2009, basically saying that the crisis was
over for the country. It's the ultimate central banking power
move.

He aggressively manipulated the country's currency, the
Shekel, and the massive devaluation helped the country keep
growing.

Israeli politics might be even more dysfunctional than the
U.S. congress, but Fischer still got the job done, and is hugely
respected in the country.

Fischer was Ben Bernanke's thesis advisor at MIT, probably
the world's best economics department, and advised other famous
economists like ECB Chief Mario Draghi and Harvard's Greg Mankiw.

"Fischer has been around the inner circle of international
economic policymaking for three decades," Morgan Stanley's
Vincent Reinhart
wrote in a research note. "If he was not at a major meeting
in person, one of his students from his long tenure at MIT
probably was."

He is a brilliant academic economist, and one of the fathers
of New Keynesian economics, which is the dominant approach in
leading departments.